Monday, January 16, 2006

Easter Egg

An Easter Egg is a hidden feature or novelty that the programmers have put in their software. In general, it is any hidden, entertaining thing that a creator hides in their creation only for their own personal reasons. This can be anything from a hidden list of the developers, to hidden commands, to jokes, to funny animations. You'd be surprised just how many things contain Easter Eggs... just look at the list that has accumulated here!

A true Easter Egg must satisfy the following criteria:1. Undocumented, Hidden, and Non-ObviousAn Easter Egg can't be a legitimate feature of a product, or be an obvious part of a storyline. Easter Eggs will usually stand out either because they totally don't fit with their context (like a pinball game in a word processor), or because they have a deeper hidden personal meaning to the creators, so they threw it in for entertainment.

2. ReproducibleEvery user with the same product or combination of products must be able to produce the same result given the instructions. If others can't reproduce an Egg, then it doesn't belong in this archive.

3. Put There by the Creators for Personal ReasonsThe Egg must have been put there on purpose, and furthermore have a personal significance to the creators beyond just making a better product (movie, TV show, software program, etc).

4. Not MaliciousEaster Eggs are there for fun, not to do damage.

5. ENTERTAINING!The most important element... if it's not there for entertainment, it's not an Egg.